Teamfight Tactics Wait Time – Everything You Need To Know

Teamfight Tactics, also known as TFT, is an auto battler, spinoff game of League of Legends. Launching in June 2019, the initial server times were insane, crossing 60 minutes for most players. In extreme cases, players waited 90 minutes for a single match. Still in its infancy, TFT players can experience wait times varying from a few seconds to 25-30 minutes. These times depend on the region, game mode, and rank division you are playing in.

TFT has 4 modes, normal, double up, ranked, and hyper roll. If you are playing the normal game mode, your wait time should be between a few seconds and 6-7 minutes. Ranked matches will take more time compared to other modes and is highly dependent on your elo. Smaller game modes like double up and hyper roll, or limited time game modes, often have even queue times lower than normal modes.

What game mode you prefer is entirely up to you. If you are pressed for time and want a speedy game before heading you, you might like a hyper roll. But if you are a hard-core grinding player, the competitive scene is much more suited to you. I will get into all of these, and their respective wait times, separately so stay tuned.

Normal Mode Wait Time

The wait time if you are playing a game in normal is on average 2-3 minutes. It can be as quick as 5 seconds or as long as 7 minutes in some cases but those are both extremes.

The main factor contributing to queue times in normal mode is the region. There are some regions that are more populated for example EU West as compared to Turkiye. This will mean players on the EU West server are likely to face lower wait times than those on the Turkiye server.

With region also comes the timing of the match if your geographical location does not match your server. For example, if I am playing from Pakistan in the EU West server, I am likely to get matches faster at night as compared to the morning.

Queue Time for Ranked Matches

The queue times for ranked matches are considerably higher, but how high depends on your elo. The densest player population is in Silver elo at 35% of players while the lowest is of course in Challenger elo at 0.024%. This means if your account is currently in the silver elo, you are more likely to find a match faster compared to someone playing in challenger elo.

With a lower player density, the chances that another player from your region is in matchmaking at the same time as you are pretty low. This is why the higher you get in ranked mode, the harder it is to find matches. Some players complain of having to wait over half an hour just to play a single match.

The region also factors a role in this mode but the primary contributing factor is definitely your elo. Average wait times for silver elo are 7-10 minutes while challenger wait times are unpredictable. Guess you just have to get there and find out.

Side Modes/ Limited-Time Modes

A lot of you don’t like playing normal matches because of their long duration and might prefer these short game modes more. Fortunately, limited-time or side modes like hyper roll and double up have way shorter queue times as compared to normal games.

If you are queuing up for a shorter duration game mode, chances are you will get into a match instantly. This is because people can casually play these modes whenever they want without committing too much time to them. This increase the chances of you getting matched up faster.

For limited-time game modes, the queue time is by far the shortest. Everyone wants to play the new game mode for as long as it’s here and so the matchmaking is almost instantaneous. With close to no wait time, limited-time game modes have the shortest wait times of 2-3 seconds.

Updates and New Content

Whenever a new update drops, like the most recent one introducing Set 7, there will be an astronomical increase in wait time. That is because, with every patch, there are always certain bugs. Aside from that, people are dying to try out the new content meaning everyone is in matchmaking. This might sound good but can more often than not, overload their servers, leading to an eventual crash. So if there’s been a recent big update to the game, mentally prepare yourself for over half an hour of wait time, maybe even more, for normal matches.

Parting Thoughts

Wait times are always an annoying but necessary feature when playing multiplayer games. No matter how huge the player base is, wait times are a must for proper matchmaking. So if you are in a situation where you are facing long wait times, turn on an episode on Netflix, and just wait. In certain situations though, make sure there is not an issue with your client otherwise you will be waiting forever. But get through those wait times to dominate the board!